Archive for category: Business paper

Identify the savings goal and the time frame you determined for reaching your goal. Why is the time frame you identified realistic? [Write your response to Question 1 here.]

Identify the savings goal and the time frame you determined for reaching your goal

While writing responses to the prompts below, you may need to refer back to the budget you created in the Assignment 2 Financial Plan Budget Excel Template. Make sure you have completed your budget before completing this portion of the assignment.

Questions
1.       Identify the savings goal and the time frame you determined for reaching your goal. Why is the time frame you identified realistic?

[Write your response to Question 1 here.]

2.       Explain why you chose the housing option you did and how it will help you achieve your selected financial goal.
a.       What considerations, if any, did you give to the following when selecting your housing option?
i.      Time frame for savings goal.
ii.      Familial situation.
iii.      Quality of life.
iv.      Trade-off decisions.
v.      Other considerations.

[Write your response to Question 2 here.]

3.       Explain your choices for non-rent expenditures and how they will help achieve your savings goal within the time frame.
a.       How did you make the choices you did regarding non-rent expenditures?
b.      How do your expenditures align with the financial goal you selected?

[Write your response to Question 3 here.]

4.       Reflect on the productivity strategies you used to break down your financial plan into smaller steps to help you stay organized and productive.
a.       How closely did you follow the plan you thought through earlier in the assignment instructions?
b.      How did a step-by-step and organized approach help you to adjust your financial priorities and financial plan?
c.       How did the approach you use draw upon productivity strategies that you had previously learned?

[Write your response to Question 4 here.]

What type of organizational culture and organizational structure are necessary in an organization to encourage creativity and innovation and why? Use a contemporary organization and relevant theory as examples to demonstrate your answer and understanding

What type of organizational culture and organizational structure are necessary in an organization to encourage creativity and innovation

What type of organizational culture and organizational structure are necessary in an organization to encourage creativity and innovation and why? Use a contemporary organization and relevant theory as examples to demonstrate your answer and understanding.

Firstly, Individual Essay (in report form)

Secondly, In Arial Font size 12

Thirdly, Minimum of eight additional good quality references (Ensure that they are not all website)

More details;

We begin our discussion of organizational culture with a case study from the aerospace industry (Snyder, 1988):

Plant 10 of Lockheed-California’s L-1011 program was considered an albatross by Lockheed’s top management. In 1979, when Dan Daniels was named vice president of manufacturing and given direct responsibility for the plant, he faced a myriad of performance problems in Plant 10, including production behind schedule, production costs significantly over budget, quality problems, a climate of fear that suppressed information needed to correct problems, and open hostility between departments. Fortunately, from his experiences over the years, Daniels had developed a strong managerial philosophy that was very different from the autocratic and demeaning style of management for which Plant 10 had been known.

From his first week there, Daniels embarked on actions of cultural significance. He began by sending a memo to all employees expressing his philosophy. Realizing they would read more into what he did than what he said, he then promoted his philosophy by walking around and talking to people throughout the plant. At first they were reluctant to talk, but Daniels was persistent and open. He worked with people to solve problems and urged his managers to do the same. He made it clear to his managers that employees were to be treated considerately and fired one punitive manager who was unable or unwilling to change his style. Another manger who would not provide accurate information was replaced. To build team spirit, managers were issued special blue flight jackets that they wore with pride.

Did the changing in Investment expenditures help Real GDP grow after the tax cuts of 2017 were passed?

Did the changing in Investment expenditures help Real GDP grow after the tax cuts of 2017 were passed

More details;

The Economic Effects of the 2017 Tax Revision: Preliminary Observations

The 2017 tax revision, P.L. 115-97, often referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and referred to subsequently as the Act, substantially revised the U.S. tax system. The Act permanently reduced the corporate tax rate to 21%, made a number of revisions in business tax deductions (including limits on interest deductions), and provided a major revision in the international tax rules.

It also substantially revised individual income taxes, including an increase in the standard deduction and child credit largely offset by eliminating personal exemptions, along with rate cuts, limits on itemized deductions (primarily a dollar cap on the state and local tax deduction), and a 20% deduction for pass-through businesses (businesses taxed under the individual rather than the corporate tax, such as partnerships).

These individual provisions are temporary and are schedule to expire after 2025. The Act also adopted temporary provisions allowing the immediate deduction for equipment investment. Also, an increase in the exemption for estate and gift taxes. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that these changes would reduce tax revenue by $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

In 2018, gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 2.9%. On the whole, the growth effects tend to show a relatively small (if any) first-year effect on the economy. Although growth rates cannot indicate the tax cut’s effects on GDP. They tend to rule out very large effects particularly in the short run.

Although investment grew significantly, the growth patterns for different types of assets do not appear to be consistent with the direction and size of the supply-side incentive effects one would expect from the tax changes. This potential outcome may raise questions about how much longer-run growth will result from the tax revision.

This is a paper that is requiring the student to write a paper on company’s financial sales and profit sales. The paper also provides additional information to use in writing this assignment paper well and concisely.

Write a paper on company’s financial sales and profit sales

Company Sales Analysis
Write a paper that addresses the following as well as provides smooth transitions.
1. Analyze the company’s financial sales and profit results over the last three reported years, comparing sales revenue and profits. Provide as much detail as possible (e.g., the three-year financial analysis by total revenue and profit as well as by product segment and geographic area (if available and applicable). Identify and discuss the trends and the causes for these trends. [The financial information can generally be found in the company’s annual report. The product and geography breakouts are usually found in the latter part of the financial section of the annual report.]

2. What products and/or services does the company sell? 3. How does the company segment or structure their product line? 4. What geographies does the company cover? 5. What markets does the company seem to be targeting? 6. How would you describe the company’s marketing strategy? 7. What can you tell about the company’s sales model and coverage model? (For example: Do they use a direct sales force, inside sales, business partners, etc.? If they use multiple sales channels, can you tell how they approach their markets by channel?) 8. What can you tell about the company’s growth strategy going forward? 9. Provide any other information you deem appropriate to include.

Remember, ensure  that the pages are exclusive of the cover and the reference pages. Also, ensure that you include all the references you use in finding research for this assignment paper. References should be at least three for the paper. All references, citation, and writing should follow the APA formatting and styling guidelines. Finally, ensure you focus on the assignment topic in detail.

Compare the culture where you work with that of Microsoft’s in the 2000s. Based on your workplace environment, can you give recommendations to Microsoft regarding its prior culture?

Compare the culture where you work with that of Microsoft’s in the 2000s

The Curious Case of Culture at Microsoft— Then and Now Shortly after 2000, Microsoft experienced a “lost decade.”
The company essentially missed markets for products such as e-books, digital music, Internet search, and social networking platforms. A significant part of the problem was that Microsoft had developed a seriously
dysfunctional culture.

Things were so bad that two employees (a married couple) wrote a book documenting the company’s problems:
Stack Rank This! Memoirs of a Microsoft Couple.

The authors narrated the woes of working at Microsoft, which included bullying, burnout, abusive (sometimes
screaming) managers, and intense but unhealthy competition across teams. All of these led to a stifling of teamwork
and innovation, and ultimately a decrease in Microsoft’s bottom line.

What has been blamed for much of the dysfunction was Microsoft’s use of “stack ranking” as a performance appraisal tool.

Managers had to evaluate employees to make them fit a “bell curve.” For example, a manager with 20 direct reports could only assign 4 people to the “great” or “excellent” categories. Exactly 12 employees
had to be rated “average,” and the final 4 had to be rated “poor.”

So, even on a team of superstars, employees received “poor” ratings. Conversely, on teams of slackers,
some members always obtained an “excellent” rating.

This stack ranking incentivized undesired behaviors.

Individuals avoided working on teams with highly competent employees, for fear of receiving a “poor.” Teams withheld
information and competed fiercely with each other.

Moreover, the rankings happened every six months. This created a short-term employee focus and hindered long range planning and also goal accomplishment.

A bizarre example of cultural dysfunction came from the innocuous mini cartons of milk Microsoft provided for
coffee breaks. Employees would open a carton, use a bit, and then return the carton to the fridge. The next employee,
though, had to decide whether or not to use the opened milk (“Did someone put their mouth on it!?” “Has
the milk soured!?”).

In fact, many employees just dumped out the mostly full milk cartons and opened new ones.
This amplified the problem, as other employees complained about how much milk the company was wasting!
Microsoft had a new but unfortunate cultural symbol—the “orphaned milk carton”—and the issue generated significant attention on the company’s social media platform.

Employees regularly posted pictures of abandoned milk cartons. One former employee was even quoted as saying,
“The [milk carton] problem exists and also it represented one of Microsoft’s biggest overall issues.” Concern about
milk cartons versus, say, declining market share is an obvious sign that something is wrong!

Microsoft had seemingly devolved from visionary to bureaucracy. Change was needed, and also often change is best achieved by shaking things up at the top.

In 2014, Microsoft welcomed new CEO, Satya Nadella, a former executive vice president inside the company.
The new CEO changed things immediately. Nadella’s primary goal was to transform the company’s culture into “one that values continual learning and growth.” For example, Nadella modified the company’s mission statement from a “temporary goal” (“a PC on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software”) to an “enduring mission” (“empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”).

The company also made significant revisions to its stack-ranking appraisal system. A recent online survey of
1,168 employees gave Microsoft a B+ for its corporate culture— not bad, considering where the company was. Consistent
with these changes, the company’s stock price rose 178 percent in a little more than four years since Nadella took over. Oh, and finally, Microsoft now uses Bigger—quart-sized—milk cartons!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.Firstly, compare the culture where you work with that of Microsoft’s in the 2000s. Based on your workplace environment, can you give recommendations to Microsoft regarding its prior culture?

2. Also, what steps might you take when work teams compete against each other, rather than work toward a common corporate goal?

3. Finally, most workers hate stack ranking. What might be a reason for this and how might this system be modified
to reward stars without the downsides?

Sources: Weinberger, M. (October 1, 2017). Microsoft CEO Satya
Nadella explains what happened when employees struggled with a gross milk situation. Business Insider. Retrieved July 1, 2019 from www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-satya-nadella-milkdilemma- 2017-9; Bort, J. (May 23, 2012). Microsoft is filled with abusive managers and overworked emplyees, says tell-all book.

Retrieved July 1, 2019, from www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-isfilled-
with-abusive-managers-and-overworked-employees-says-tell-allbook-
2012-5.